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21-03-2014

ARA News

Urfa, Turkey− Kurdish neighbourhoods in the city of Tel Abyad in northern Syria saw large displacement movement among civilians due to the mounting pressures by the al-Qaeda splinter group of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) −which is in control over the city since months.

Hundreds of Tel Abyad’s Kurdish residents crossed the border into Turkey on Wednesday, escaping “suppressive practices” of ISIL members against them. Dozens of families have previously left the city after ISIL’s control.

Members of the al-Qaeda splinter ISIL group called on the Kurdish residents in Tel Abyad to evacuate their houses, after accusing them of cooperation with the Kurdish forces of the Popular Protection Units (YPG) −which is since months in conflict with ISIL for control over areas in northern Syria, especially Kurdish-populated areas.

Tel Abyad’s Kurds appealed in a statement to the Arab intellectuals and tribal figures to interfere and stop what they called “ethnic cleansing of Kurdish civilians from Tel Abyad city”.

“ISIL group intends to ethnically cleanse the city from its Kurdish residents in a try to inflame a sectarian conflict between Arabs and Kurds in the entire region,” the statement read. “We appeal to the Arab brothers to intervene and put an end to the attempts of this group (ISIL), otherwise an unprecedented Arab-Kurdish tension will result. We should efficiently cooperate to overcome serious consequences of ISIL practices in the area, to preserve Kurdish-Arab brotherhood and maintain a history of coexistence.”

A delegation from the Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNC) headed to several Arab villages −Selib Qeran, Hurriya, Bir Halash and al-Ahmadiya− and held meetings with Arab tribal figures to look into a possible cooperation in order to put pressures on ISIL and stop the suffering of hundreds of displaced Kurdish families.

Local sources in Tel Abyad city told ARA News that the rest of the Kurdish population in the city are now fleeing their houses and resorting to the nearby Kurdish villages in the western countryside of the city −which is out of ISIL’s control.